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Who Is Holley Mangold? Everything to Know About Former New York Jets Star Nick Mangold's Sibling

Former New York Jets player Nick Mangold has passed away at the age of 41. Here is everything we know about his sibling, olympic weightlifter Holley Mangold.
posted by Vaishnavi Sah
Monday 10/27/2025 at 6:26AM EDT
  • Weightlifter Holley Mangold at the Team USA Media Summit in Dallas, TX in advance of the 2012 London Olympics. (Photo by Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis via Getty Images)
    Weightlifter Holley Mangold at the Team USA Media Summit in Dallas, TX in advance of the 2012 London Olympics. (Photo by Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis via Getty Images)

    Former New York Jets player Nick Mangold has passed away at the age of 41 on Saturday night, due to complications of kidney disease, his former team announced in a news release.

    The news of his passing comes as he recently posted a letter on his Instagram handle on October 15. In the post, Nick explained that he was diagnosed with a genetic defect in 2006, which led to chronic kidney disease. After a "rough summer," he was undergoing dialysis and reached out to his fans in search of a kidney donor.

    "I always knew this day would come, but I thought I would have had more time. Unfortunately, I do not have any family able to donate at this time, so this is why I'm reaching out to you, our NY Jets and Ohio State communities. I am in need of a kidney donor with type O blood," he wrote.

    Nick continued:

    "Most of all, I'm thankful for my family, who have been my rock every step of the way. This situation has reminded me how lucky I am to have such an amazing family, friends, and community behind me. While this has been a tough stretch, I'm staying positive and focused on the path ahead. I'm looking forward to better days and getting back to full strength soon."

    Born on January 13, 1984, to Vernon and Therese Mangold, Nick was the eldest of four siblings, Kelley, Maggey, and Olympic weightlifter Holley Mangold.

    Keep reading to learn more about Holley Mangold.

    More about Holley Magold

    In an interview with Breaking Muscle, Holley Mangold explained that she grew up in an athletic family, noting that her mother was a collegiate swimmer, who encouraged her to try anything she found interesting, which prompted her to try "gymnastics, Taekwondo, diving, speed skating, softball, basketball, wrestling, discus, shot-put, and football," among which she found football the most interesting. While her father, who was not sporty, "gifted his strength and brute to her."

    "Holley is an unconventional girl. There's no two ways about it. Her personality is really differ ent and unique. She's always been a big girl, she grew up being a big girl, yet she loves girly things. She used to love wearing twirly dresses. She would go with football practice and games with fingernail polish on," said her mother in a statement.

    She began playing football with her father as her coach, and later took up weightlifting as she transitioned to high school.

    Speaking about the sport, Holley said:

    "I started in powerlifting when I was a sophomore training in the barn outside of Larry Pacifico’s house. It was awesome to come into a sport where naturally I was able to manhandle the bar up. No sport before was I able to pick up so quickly and still get such a rush of adrenaline. I loved it," she said.

    When she went to college, she realized that it would be very different from high school because "the chances of me, a 5'8" lineman, moving on to the college level are really unheard of," so she shifted her focus to track and Olympic weightlifting at Ursaline College.

    With the guidance of her coaches and through "tough practices and a strict diet plan," she "quickly got the hang of being an Olympic-style lifter, and it became the sport I couldn’t get enough of."

    After her second year in college, she made the "tough decision" to put college on hold and began training full-time. She eventually gained recognition from the Olympic Training Center (OTC), which invited her to train in Colorado. In 2012, she qualified for the Olympic team, competing in the superheavyweight division, and was placed tenth out of the 14 weightlifters.

    Although there hasn't been much recent news about Holley, Team USA records show that her most recent World Championship appearance was in 2015.

    Holley Mangold also appeared on True Life in June 2011 and participated in the reality show The Biggest Loser Season 15.

    TOPICS: Holley Mangold, Nick Mangold